onight’s elimination episode saw our top eight battle it out to stay in the competition. Everyone except Malissa, who had secured immunity from tonight’s cook, partook in a two-round challenge, the first of which was a taste test with a twist.
Surrounded by what looked like a science lab, contestants were offered colourful petri dishes that contained a flavoured pearl, with an ingredient distilled down to its purest flavour profile. Putting their palates to the test, it was up to the contestants to guess the flavour, with no scent, no visual clues and no textures to assist them.
Proving harder than it looked, Adi was the first to guess incorrectly, mistakenly guessing thyme for rosemary. Declan shortly followed, guessing coriander for cucumber, trailed by Rue who guessed jalapeno for wasabi. Finally, after Brent chose turmeric instead of saffron, the round two cooks were selected.
Round two was all about colour palettes and Adi, Declan, Rue and Brent were each assigned a colour at random which had to act as inspiration for their dish. With 75 minutes on the clock, contestants had to cook a dish with their colour front and centre. The least impressive dish would send its maker home.
Adi was assigned green – the one colour she didn’t want. She lost precious time on the clock, paralysed by her indecision. Feeling the pressure, she finally decided to cook kingfish sashimi with a Middle Eastern spicy, green zhug sauce with tapioca crackers. Adi struggled to balance the heat, acidity and savoury notes in her sauce and worked frantically to plate up without tasting each element together.
Rue had orange and highlighted apricots in a lemon verbena parfait, with apricot coulis and compressed apricots. She’d never made the dish before as a whole but remained focused.
Declan’s colour was red and he instantly gravitated towards a khao moo daeng with noodles. He was determined to show how much he’d learnt in the competition so far and set off to stain his pork with red food colouring before twice cooking it. He developed a broth, noodles and a sambal.
Brent had yellow and played to his strengths, cooking an octopus yellow curry. He hoped not to use his immunity pin but it did cross his mind at various points throughout his cook.
Upon tasting, the judges were disappointed with Rue’s parfait. While it had good flavour, it was too soft and the plum liqueur in her coulis hadn’t cooked off. Declan’s khao moo daeng was praised, as was his evolution in the competition so far. Andy couldn’t believe that Brent had even considered using his pin with his octopus curry dish cooked perfectly. Adi knew that she didn’t have the best cook and while her dish met the green brief, the judges were let down by her unbalanced and underwhelming zhug sauce.
Before Adi said farewell to her fellow contestants, Jock celebrated her deep understanding of cooking and cuisines as a relative newcomer to the kitchen.
